Tim Abbott

Social networking 'damaging school work' say teachers

Well... further to my previous post, the BBC reports that in a recent survey of 500 teachers half of those who took part said children's "obsession" with social networking was affecting their ability to concentrate in class. One in four said they believed children with the poorest grades in school were those who did the most online social networking.

I wonder, is Social Networking principally the cause or a symptom of a more distracted society. Competition for our attention is immense - we have more channels to watch on TV, there's more advertising, most of us have mobile phones, we shop more, we live in more socially fractured homes and generally live life at a more accelerated pace than previous generations. Social networking is just one part of this whirlwind of diverse activity, this multiplexed existence and although I feel sure it plays a contributory part in our lack of focus or concentration I think it's just one aspect of a bigger picture.

What fascinates me is that when we run a Prayer Space in school, one of the most popular activities is the 'quiet tent' - a place where students are invited to relax and be still. Some come back repeatedly at break times and lunchtimes. Some are reluctant to leave. The experience of peace and stillness seems almost to overwhelm them, to catch them by surprise.

Facebook musings

A couple of Facebook related posts caught my eye today.

In Zuckerberg: Non-Evil Non-Genius? Robert Wright reflects on the growth stages of Facebook, and how a sequence of largely unplanned developments became a killer strategy, levering the power of "positive network externalities" - basically, it's not what you do, it's how many people connect to what you do that counts.

 

While over at The Guardian Charles Arthur asks, Is your private phone number on Facebook? Probably. And so are your friends'. Be careful what you post on your profile people... I'm just saying...
h/t Dave Walker

tunein radio

 

I'm loving the tunein radio app for iPhone. It allows you to listen to, pause, rewind and record live radio.

Excellent news now that BBC 6 Music has been reprieved!

tunein radio - itunes link and web site

Wired predictions from the 90's

I was fascinated by this list of quotes from the first five years of Wired magazine, from May 93 to Dec 97, compiled by Kevin Kelly. His conclusion,

"all predictions of the future are really just predictions of the present."

There's variety here. With the benefit of hindsight, some are mildly bonkers, some are pontifications about things that would have been fairly obvious at the time and some are stabs at pop philosophy. Some predictions, however, seem to have become even more true with the passage of time.

My favourites:

• We as a culture are deeply, hopelessly, insanely in love with gadgetry. And you can't fight love and win. (May 93)
• Yesterday, we changed the channel; today we hit the remote; tomorrow, we'll reprogram our agents/filters. Advertising will not go away; it will be rejuvenated. (Feb 94)
• The scarce resource will not be stuff, but point of view. (Mar 94)
• Life is not going to be easy in the 21st century for people who insist on black-and-white descriptions of reality. (Nov 94)
• The very distinction between original and copy becomes meaningless in a digital world -- there the work exists only as a copy. (Dec 94)
• The future won't be 500 channels -- it will be one channel, your channel. (Mar 95)
• The human spirit is infinitely more complex than anything that we're going to be able to create in the short run. And if we somehow did create it in the short run, it would mean that we aren't so complex after all, and that we've all been tricking ourselves. (Nov 95)
• We have a predisposition in Western culture for "just do it," whereas, I think that part of the future will be built much more around "just be it." (Sep 96)

Facebook before face-to-face

Today I became friends with a new minister here in Colchester via Facebook before meeting up in person thus creating the perfect opportunity to arrange to, well... meet up in person.

In a slightly creepy way Facebook has become almost invisible - part of the social water within which many of us swim.

Never Underestimate the Power of a Good Story

Brilliant!

h/t: Phil Cooke

ClickToFlash

ClickToFlash is a small plug-in for the Safari browser on the Mac that blocks Flash animations from loading. This not only speeds up web page loading times but also cuts down the work your computer processor and graphics chip have to do running Flash.

You can still view Flash whenever you want just by clicking on the graphic that displays in its place. You can also choose to enable Flash for whole web sites if required.

YouTube clips will play in H.264 video format rather than Flash which is not only better quality but requires less processor power. You can still switch to watching YouTube clips in Flash if you want.

I've installed ClickToFlash and so far it works perfectly. My MB Pro doesn't heat up like it used to when viewing multiple Flash enabled web pages and I can now ignore all sorts of annoying ads. Neat!

Flashblock performs a similar function for Firefox on all platforms.

Google Street View snappers snapped on Street View

Some bold and fast acting photographic types have been sacrificing themselves before the all pervading Google Street View camera cars and have thereby achieved Street View immortality.

The Register has all the details.

Street View snappers of the nation, we salute you.

Kutiman - YouTube remixer extraordinaire

Kutiman is an Israeli musician and producer who has taken the art of the mash-up to a whole new level with a series of music videos edited entirely from YouTube clips of amateur musicians doing their thing. This is my favourite:

There's more here

MacBook sleuth

When a woman in Santa Cruz had her Macbook stolen she enlisted the help of a friend who had a .mac account and a user account on her computer. Using Mac OS X Leopard’s “Back to My Mac” screen sharing feature he has been able to track and identify the thief including taking photos of him using the built in Photo Booth camera. The Police are now on the trail of the thief with a warrant...

You can follow the story on this blog